Latest news with #JennaLyle
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
NYC ditches fresh fruit and veggie snacks in schools after federal cuts to USDA: ‘A shame'
A program that provided NYC students with fresh fruit and vegetable snacks is being cancelled for the rest of the year, The Post has learned. 'Unfortunately, due to a funding issue, NYC will be unable to continue the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program for the remainder of the 2024-2025 school year,' said a city Department of Education notice sent to elementary school parents in Brooklyn this week. 'Students will still receive their fruits and veggies at lunch,' but will not get an additional snack three days a week, according to the note. The change will take effect on March 31 in more than 50 city schools part of the federal program, which cost $1,179,000 this school year, records show. 'It would be a shame if kids don't get that extra fruit,' a Harlem mom told The Post. 'For some of the kids in our communities, the only fruit they might have is at school.' Parents said their kids typically receive an apple, banana or bag of cucumbers or carrots with Ranch dressing as a snack. Other choices have included cantaloupe, grapes, honeydew, kiwi and pineapple, said a DOE source. 'I've heard they might be replaced with canned fruits or applesauce,' the insider said. It's unclear what, if anything, will replace the fresh veggie snacks. The move follows the US Department of Agriculture announcement this week that it is cutting $1 billion in federal funding to provide schools and food banks fresh, locally sourced produce. It is one of the latest efforts the Trump administration claims will eliminate waste in the federal government. Schools with at least 50% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals generally qualify for the program, according to the USDA. Ironically, most of 279,000 cases of apples worth $5.5 million went to waste last summer after the city DOE ordered three times more of the fruit from the USDA than it needed, The Post reported. Kitchen staff have urged the DOE's Office of Food and Nutrition Services to prioritize kids' favorite fruit and veggie items, but it continues over-paying costly distributors for unpopular items, a cafeteria insider told The Post. Since July, the city has been overcharged an estimated $1.2 million for produce including squash, apples, oranges, grapefruit, bananas and herbs like cilantro at distributors' rates instead of at market value, the whistleblower said. 'These funds could be better utilized to procure higher-quality fruits and vegetables, rather than having them go to waste.' The funding for the extra snacks of fresh fruit is expected to resume next school year, another DOE source said. Sources at several city schools confirmed the fresh fruit decrease, but DOE spokeswoman Jenna Lyle denied any cutback. 'Everyday we are ensuring that our students have access to nutritious and delicious meals, and we will continue to prioritize providing nutritious, healthy food for our students amid any changes in federal funds,' she said.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Yahoo
School bus hit by gunfire in NYC: police
THE BRONX, N.Y. (PIX11) – A school bus was hit by gunfire in New York City Friday, police said. The incident happened near East 165th Street and Trinity Avenue in the Bronx around 2:20 p.m., according to the NYPD. More Local News The school was hit by multiple rounds, police said. No one near the bus was injured, authorities said. It's unclear if anyone was on the bus at the time. Multiple males fled the scene on foot after the shooting, police said. No arrests have been made. 'The safety of our students is our top priority at all times. We are grateful that no students were hurt, and EMS and NYPD responded,' said Jenna Lyle, a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Education. Additional information about the incident wasn't immediately available. Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting downloading the NYPD Crime Stoppers mobile app, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Finn Hoogensen is a digital journalist who has covered local news for more than six years. He has been with PIX11 News since 2022. See more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Yahoo
NYC Public Schools working to identify students affected by PowerSchool data breach
A handful of New York City public schools were impacted by what appears to be the biggest-ever breach of American children's personal information, education officials confirmed. Last month, the education technology company PowerSchool announced that hackers had accessed its student information systems, including names, birthdays, addresses and Social Security numbers. So far, at least four local schools — with a combined enrollment of 3,000 students — have been identified as being ensnared in the cyberattack. PowerSchool is not required by the local Department of Education, but some principals have purchased the software to keep track of their students. Because student information systems are decentralized, parents may still be in the dark as to whether their children's information was breached, advocates warned. A public schools spokeswoman said they have reached out to the 'small number of schools' that PowerSchool revealed were among the institutions hacked nationwide. 'The safety and security of our students and staff, including their personal information and data, is of the utmost importance for New York City Public Schools,' Jenna Lyle, the spokeswoman, said in a statement. 'We are working diligently to obtain information from PowerSchool that would identify the specific students and data that was affected by this incident. Once we have that information, any student whose data is found to have been affected will receive direct notice from NYCPS detailing how they were impacted and instructions on how to enroll in identity-monitoring services, free of cost.' The New York City schools confirmed to have been affected are Fordham High School for the Arts, Long Island City High School, Lower East Side Preparatory High School, and Westchester Square Academy, according to an email from the New York State Education Department obtained by the Daily News. Neither Lyle nor PowerSchool shared how many local schools they were aware of that were impacted by the breach. Advocates lamented that DOE and the tech company were not more forthcoming. 'It's irresponsible for the DOE not to publicize this as widely as possible,' said Leonie Haimson, co-chairperson of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, an advocacy group. 'People ought to be taking advantage of this offer [of identity-monitoring services] as quickly as possible. Because the longer they wait, the more likely this data will be misused.' Haimson noted there are few ways for alumni, for example, if impacted, to learn about the breach unless news outlets and the public at large are alerted. She added that before PowerSchool went public about the incident, she already had concerns about the company, 17 different programs of whose — with 'extremely sensitive' student data — are listed on the DOE website. 'I noticed in [a] privacy addendum this line in there that 'We will abide by all federal, state and local privacy laws, but only if they're commercially reasonable' — which seems to me a real red flag,' Haimson said. PowerSchool, which first became aware of the breach on Dec. 28 through one of its customer support portals, insisted it acted quickly to protect students. 'As soon as PowerSchool learned of the incident, we engaged cybersecurity response protocols and mobilized senior leadership and third-party cybersecurity experts to conduct a forensic investigation of the scope of the incident and to monitor for signs of information misuse,' read a statement. The PowerSchool data breach is the latest in a string of cybersecurity incidents to impact the New York City Public Schools, which is convening a 16-member student data privacy 'working group' to study the issue, which Haimson will sit on. In 2023, the personal data of about 45,000 local students were compromised in a global cyberattack on a popular file-transfer software, MOVEit. The year before, 820,000 current and former students were impacted by a hack of an online grading and attendance system from Illuminate Education.
